“That is why bio-nano science is generating such excitement, especially in developing new technologies with the potential to revolutionise medicine.”

Professor Andrew Whittaker of the AIBN and CAI said the centre’s scientific program will focus on four main application areas: delivery systems; imaging technologies; sensors and diagnostics; and vaccines.

“The work in these areas will expand the fundamental Australian science base in bio-nano interactions and facilitate translation of these scientific discoveries into novel and innovative technologies,” he said.

IMB’s Professor Rob Parton said the Queensland team would play a key role in designing medicines to seek out biochemical signatures on the surface of target cells such as tumours, without attacking nearby healthy cells.

“A major challenge of current drugs is that many of them target the good cells as well as the cancerous cells,” Professor Parton said.

“Working at the nanoscale level allows us to use materials with dimensions thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair, which makes it easier to more accurately target treatments with minimal harm to surrounding cells.”

Professor Tom Davis from Monash University is the director of the new centre, and partner organisations include the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, The University of Queensland, the University of South Australia, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Imperial College London, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Sungkyunkwan University, the University of Nottingham, the University College Dublin, the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Warwick and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.